"I hate you!" Samuels yelled, sitting in the passenger seat of his car with a somewhat angered look to his face. The UNSC peeper command network allowed the police in this area to use their rewinding technology to get suspects for the crime, digitally erasing my appearance. They were able to quickly clear out the crime scene because of this and left the garbage wide open for us to take...

"Quiet there young Samuels," I noticed Samuels glaring in my direction, "We have a mission, and as your superior it is time for me to give you an order."

"To dig out garbage... What an order..."

"Silence! Insubordination en? Well, that'll get you to the brig!" I said. I loved this ability that I found I had, and I loved making Samuels mad.

"There is no brig in this car. There is no brig in the hotel. You cannot send e to the brig."

"There is the woods, brethren of evil! You can sleep with the animals on a bed of pine needles and with a blanket of your own sweat and blood coating you. You know that wolves are a big problem around here, right?"

"There are no wolves on Lunar 4 outside of Zoos." An awkward silence filled the air as I attempted to continue my mood of victory despite this setback.

"Are we there yet? Yes we are. We are to the alley!" I smiled before pushing Samuels out his door and circling around to the parking lot, "Enjoy." I knew that I would enjoy this... The car parked swiftly and I hesitated before leaving the keys within it. This town, however, was one where you could leave your door unlocked at night, though after the recent string of murders I highly doubt that anyone would. I stepped out of the car and allowed a breath of the peaceful county air into my lungs. It probably didn't smell so good where Samuels was... I walked slowly to the alley as Samuels climbed into the dumpster and got on his knees, digging through the garbage. Perhaps the proverb was correct - to the truest sense the garbage of one man, or in this case woman, is another's treasure, our treasure. I could only hope that it was still there though.

"Um... This is all garbage..." Samuels claimed after searching for a few minutes.

"Well... I figured... She couldn't have buried it too deep before I came around the corner. Do you think that the CSI picked it up?"

"No, all they got from here was a few boot prints and the peeper images. Why search the garbage for a dead supersoldier?"

"Good point. Think that she could have slid it behind the dumpster or underneath it?"

"She could have... I'll check." Samuels dropped out of the dumpster and circled towards me, covered in filth. He walked towards me as not to draw attention. Any normal citizen would be a little suspicious of a man covered in garbage in an alley of a town that has no crime or unemployment. He quickly checked around all of the dumpsters, his search producing no results. She had probably came back to the own from the location she had hidden the Spartan at solely to kill me and get her car, leaving the Spartan in a remote location. It might have been too heavy for her to carry with her or she might have thought that it would draw too much attention to herself. Either way the Spartan was missing, and it was our job to find it, and the woods was a big place. I heard the rumble of some thunder overhead and looked upwards towards the billowing Cumulous clouds.

"It's gonna rain. Clean up and get back to the car, we're done here. Tomorrow we will go search the woods again. Why does it seem like I have done everything on this mission over and over again..."

"Because, I agree with you, this mission sucks, it's driving me insane. We have lost, the Spartan is god knows where, the bounty hunter who has it is purposefully avoiding the town, and the forest is a very large place... We'll be lucky to ever find her. I have never been on a mission nearly as botched as this one. Lucky 13, clearly."

"Well, what can you expect from a mission that ONI gives us. All they ever do is paperwork and conspiracies, nothing valuable."

"Yeah, do you know how long I spent locked in that basement waiting to get to go on a mission? It seemed like a lifetime, and for all I know it was. When I got this field assignment I was so happy. If I had known that it would be like this..."

I felt a raindrop splash down on the back of my hand. I looked up at the cloud as the thunder growled down at me. I looked down at the ground and noticed that one of the puddles on the ground was rumbling as it was struck with thousands of tiny raindrops. "I'm getting in the car, it's starting to rain. Want an umbrella?"

"Sure, throw me one. Glove compartment I think."

I circled around the car again and placed the key into the door, quickly opening it and sliding inside before the rain began to convert itself from drizzle to torrent. I sat down and turned the car on, rotating the heating dial to only a few units below full and leaning across the car to open the glove compartment. As the rain began to fall harder the windows of the car became blotted with the blurs of splashing raindrops. The raindrops were very large and quickly became a downpour. I pulled the glove compartment open resulting in an avalanche of papers and maps. It reminded me of my car's glove compartment, crammed and stuffed with everything I needed to complete a mission. Here I was, literally dying to leave behind this life of danger and excitement while at the same time Samuels vied to get into it. In a sense the job was my life. Every mission I was a different person in a different place, and I was told to be that person regardless. My former life was almost forgotten by me, and was already forgotten by my government. I was taken from my life, and in a sense I was killed. I lifted a finger to touch a face that I could only call my own. I quickly shuffled through Samuels' things and grabbed a small umbrella. The window pulled itself open and I tossed it outside to his waiting arms. The rain had done much to clean his clothes, and his hair was well saturated. I loved rain like this, but I had no reason to. Rain is the harbinger of destruction and failure, and could seal any military campaigns fate. I pressed the up button to seal the window and sat back listening to the gentle tapping of the rain on the windshield as the two windshield wipers uselessly slid back and forth trying to clear the window of the torrent's fallout. The windshield wipers were comparable to our struggle in Melo; as hard as they tried there would never be an end nor a reason for their struggle. I tried to focus my attention elsewhere to Samuels who was finishing brushing the garbage form his shirt and coming towards the car. I unlocked the door and pushed it open for him. He leaned into the car with the umbrella still open and sat down before closing it.

"Are you suicidal?" I asked.

"Where'd that come from?" Samuels closed the umbrella.

"First you are my thirteenth partner on the worst possible day and month of my life, and now you take an umbrella into a car before closing it. You are praying to end up going home in a body bag at this rate... Don't say I didn't warn you." Samuels chuckled before putting the Umbrella away. "Now, I want to call a truce with you."

"A truce?"

"Yeah, a truce. We have both hurt each other enough. I mean, nothing good is going to come of use hurting each other. Truce?"

"I see what you're saying... You dent up my car, I send you on a suicide mission, you key up my car for that, I tell HQ about garbage day... Okay, a truce. No destroying each others stuff or lives unnecessarily."

"Sounds fair. Let's try not to make more enemies on this mission. Actually, you wanna just blow off the rest of this mission?"

"Blow it off? HQ gave us orders not to--"

"Um... HQ gave up on us. The sniper took the Spartan, and she isn't gonna just give it back. The forest is too big for us to sweep clean and the peepers lost her. She is gone. How bout we just hang out at the bar around here and let the rest of the mission play itself out?"

"Well, I don't drink for one..."

"Actually, neither do I. But still, we can learn some stuff maybe, you like that. I'll bet some of the people in there have some pretty interesting stories... So, let's go to the Hotel, call up HQ, ask them if we can blow off the rest of the mission, and regardless of what they say, do it anyway!"

"I doubt they'll like us 'blowing off' the rest of the mission."

"I doubt we'll like the rest of the mission. It'll probably end with a ton of paperwork and the need for a good excuse as to why we failed. I've decided to ask em to let us go, you can come if you like." I backed the Speedstar slowly out of the parking spot and drove onto the street. The rain was still strong and it was only by the grace of god that we arrived at the hotel safely, though the parking lot seemed unusually full of cars. I was forced to turn around and park some distance from the hotel. Lightning sparked in the distance and the loud roar soon ensued. It seemed as if this were only the tempest now. Cryptic...

We stepped into the hotel soaked with rain and walked across the slick floor, wet as if it had been trodden upon by dozens of feet, and continued to the elevator only wearily suspicious of the footprints. The elevator door slid open and revealed the same hallway as before, the floor however had a wet path leading down the whole hallway and into our room as well as continuing down the hallway to the other side. It seemed as though a large group of people had moved across the carpet though, not just a few. I was curious about this. "Samuels. I'm checking the other floors to see if they have footprints like this, I need to know what's going on here. You go to the room and wait, I'll be back."

"Alright, be quick, this place is pretty scary when you know that the evil people within it are hunting you."

"No problem.", I stepped into the elevator and watched as the doors slid shut, leaving behind the mystery of the prior two floors and revealing the third. The elevators utopian and horrible music soon faded away to reveal another hallway, this one like the others in that it was covered in wet footprints. I looked at them as I walked down the hallway and counted at least a half dozen different kinds of boot prints. I was confused and mad by this time, and wanted to go home... The lightning clattered outside and the power flickered as I carefully paced down the hallway. I hear a car in the distance accompanied by a few police sirens which blared in unity. This oddity led me to the window, my nose of curiosity finding its way to the end of the hallway. I peered out as three patrol cars screeched to a halt in front of the hotel. I slid open the window shade and saw three cops with riot shields jump out of the car followed by six with suppressed MP-50s. They all had Kevlar and were very well armed, moving like military personnel. I watched as they entered the building, thanking god that HQ had finally decided to take action against the terrorists. I heard no gunfire and no screams, however, just the sound of the elevator near to me closing its doors and going down. I suddenly realized what was going on, but it was too late...

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I watched from the window as Samuels was forced to squat into the side of the patrol car. Another officer walked out with all of our weapons and a third found my rifle in the front sign. This mission had gone to hell, literally. I watched as the patrol cars drove from the parking lot down the street to the precinct. No doubt Roguriez did this.

"Missing him already?" I turned around to see. Roguriez standing behind me. Lighting cracked in the background.

"Nah. I hated him anyway."

"You know, with a press of three buttons on this phone I could have them here for you to. I could press it right..." I hit Roguriez on the face and quickly grabbed him by his collar, throwing him against the wall. He swung at me, missing as I pushed him against the other wall. He bit my arms as he smashed into the drywall. Flakes of paint and drywall floated in the air like snow as I pulled him from the wall and hit him in the face three times. A trail of blood ran down the side of his face which was powdered with the drywall dust. I threw him to the ground and he hit his head on the elevator down button, calling the elevator up to the top floor. He kicked for my legs but missed, and I returned his attack with a swift kick to his side. He stumbled up onto his feet and swung for me twice, one of his knuckles coated in blood, but I easily dodged his attacks and lifted an elbow into his face, smashing his nose. He screamed, "Ah! My fucking nose..." He stumbled wearily as the elevator arrived behind me. I turned to see it empty to my great relied. I spun around to Roguriez to see him swing a lamp down on top of my head. I crumpled to the ground instantly, looking up to see a wounded Roguriez, a large stream of blood flowing freely down his face. He kicked me in the side before I could stand up and I loosely rolled down the hallway, stopping at the elevator. I stood up as Roguriez charged at me. I dodged his charge at me and stumbled into the elevator. I quickly managed to grab him by his neck and throw im against the wall again, denting the elevator wall. I dragged him away from the wall quickly though and swung him headfirst into the other side of the elevator. I noticed that his blood was on the wall as he slid down, breathing very hard. I stumbled as he tried to kick me and tripped against the far wall of the elevator, accidentally pressing the 2 button. The elevator doors slid shut as I desperately tried to reach out to stop them. The elevator lurched as it descended a floor. I grabbed his leg and dragged him across the elevator so stop him from kicking me before he stood again, braced against the other side of the elevator. I punched him in the stomach while he regained his balance and hit him in the throat as he keeled over. He fell to the ground choking as the elevator door opened. I saw three other terrorists walking down the hallway, one carrying a pistol.

"Sir, is something wrong?" they saw me as lightning flashed and fired down the hallway. I jumped to the window and flung myself out. The fall from the second story was cushioned by the bush at the bottom of the wall. I felt something rip into my arm though and leave a cut that spanned near to the entire upper half of my arm near to an inch and dislocating my right shoulder. I quickly stumbled to my feet and ran as fast as I could towards the agricultural region. Luckily the rain shielded my escape and as they fired the rest of their magazine at me they were basically firing blindly. I got lucky.

******************************************************************

I stepped up to the Martinez house and pulled my shirt off. I noticed some blood stains no it and was reminded of my discomfort and wounds by that and the immense pin involved with trying to move my dislocated shoulder. I balled my fist and wrapped the shirt around it, smashing in the window on the back of their house and climbing in. I stepped into the kitchen while pushing my dislocated shoulder into its socket. I let out a howl of pain as the bone slid back into its socket. I turned around to see Grandma Martinez. She stared at me suspiciously. I guess it wasn't every day that a man popped a dislocated shoulder back into its socket in her house while bleeding from a huge cut in the side and breaking into her home. "Sorry Mrs. Martinez, but I need to borrow something of yours, I may not be able to return it." I said. I pushed the pain into the back of my mind and reaching to the top of her cabinet where she kept her Winchester shotgun.

"I see. Well, I hope that you're doing the right thing. I am sure that the UNSC has our best interests in mind though."

"What? How did you know?"

"I heard your whole conversation the other day. Good luck." She said before turning to go back to sleep. She looked back, "Shotgun shells are in the drawer." I nodded and slid open the drawer grabbing a couple handfuls of rounds and sliding two into the chambers after checking to see how strait they were. Horribly under equipped, wounded, and outnumbered? Mission impossible, literally.

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I shuffled in the fog to the parking lot where I stumbled around several vans to get to Samuels' Speedstar. I opened the door, which he had conveniently left unlocked, and sat down in the driver's seat, fumbling for the keys to no avail. He had them apparently, and it would decimate my plan to ruin my element of surprise. I pulled a nine volt battery that I had grabbed out of my pocket and pulled the cover off the ignition to Samuels' car. I pulled out the red and black wires out of the ignition and plugged them up to the battery and listened as the car whirred to a start. I just hotwired Samuels' car... I love this job. I quickly reconnected the black and red wires and shifted the car into drive. I drove quietly down the road until I passed by the school and suddenly accelerated, driving towards the hotel as fast as I could. The car, a ton of flying steel hurtled into the glass entryway of the hotel I hear two distinct thumps, the first the car smashing through the window and into the hotel, the second a person flying up into the windshield. The windshield shattered in, but I continued onwards smashing the car through the front desk and into the supports of the back wall, pressing against my seatbelt hard enough that I thought I had cracked my ribs. The airbag deployed into my face and beat my head back to the seat, but within a second it was all over. I jumped out of the car and stumbled wearily. I cocked the shotgun and scanned the room, no movement. Two bodies lie lifeless on the floor, one killed on patrol at the door, another at the desk, which was now out the back of the building. I quickly shuffled behind the car and took aim at the entrance to the bunker, carefully watching both of the elevators. I suddenly the door to the bunker popped open and a man who I could not identify popped a wearily amazed head from the bunker. "What's going on up--" a shotgun bullet ended his statement, and he fell down the ladder into the bunker. I heard him knock one of his friends down the ladder. I quickly ran over to the bunker and dropped a grenade into the hole. An explosion coursed through the hotel lobby and seemed to echo in the basement. It might be larger than we had anticipated. I slid down the ladder quickly and checked the room with my shotgun. It seemed empty, so I pressed against a wall and slid another buckshot into the expended chamber. I looked around and saw what appeared to be another tunnel connected to another room, and three other terrorists charging at me. Upon seeing me they scattered for cover. I leaned around the corner and waited for one to jump from cover. One of the two by the doorframe made the first fatal mistake, leaning around the corner and taking a bullet to the chest, falling backwards and twitching for a while before dying. I ducked around the corner and cocked the shotgun, waiting for a pause in the gunfire before leaning around the corner and shooting another one of the terrorists. I slid two more shots into the chamber of the shotgun and cocked it. I leapt across the hallway and tried to force the man waiting down at the other side behind a computer counsel use up the remaining ammunition in his magazine. Soon enough e pistol fire cease and I leapt around the corner, charging the table. The man looked up, halfway done reloading and frowned before I cracked the butt of the shotgun over his head and ducked behind the table he had used for cover. I checked the two bodies at the door visually for any objects of any use, but both had Berettas, and were completely useless. I leaned to the side of the table and fired a shot down the hallway. The buckshot's shrapnel echoed down the hallway and called two more terrorists from hiding, two of the original four, the only missing ones being Roguriez and Skip.

I cocked the gun again and leaned around the opposite side of the counsel and shot one of the two terrorists. The survivor opened fire on the computer panel I was hiding behind, and one of the bullets that made it through the table barely nicked my leg, but was more than enough to give me a small pool of my own blood to catch my reflection in. I realized what I was about to take from him, his glistening life blood, and I rolled from behind the table. I slid carefully to the wall and made sure not to make too much noise. I saw him begin to shoot ad the panel again, and as soon as he ran out of ammo I leapt around the corner and rolled half way down the hallway, shooting the man in the chest as I reached the end of the hallway. He flopped onto his back, almost leaping to his death as the shotgun shell hit him. The hallway seemed to end in that room, and I quickly swept it for any survivors, finding none. I slid two shells into the empty chambers of the shotgun and cocked it. Suddenly I heard a yell behind me as someone came down the ladder. I spun around to find that someone had descended from above and was yelling for his friends of an intruder in the bunker. I was too far to hit him with a buckshot, so I shuffled for cover as he fired a dozen rounds at my location. None hit me, but one ricocheted of the cement and almost hit my arm. I peered slowly around the corner sticking only the top of my head around the corner. Instantly, a shower of gunfire greeted me. I fired a shell into the wall diagonally to scare him into cover and leapt around the corner, throwing a grenade around the corner into the first room. I heard his friend drop down the ladder and suddenly scream. His scream ended abruptly with a loud explosion. I quickly charged around the corner braving the chance that they survived to get a foothold into enemy territory. I found both of them to be dead and quickly scrambled up the ladder. After quickly surveying the room for any enemies I climbed onto the main floor. It was important that I recover all of the UNSC items from my room to assure that the UNSC was not held responsible for this. Sparking a war with the Neo Covenant was among the last things Lunar 4 needed. I shuffled to the elevator past the wrecked Speedstar and into the elevator. I noticed the dented wall and bloodstains, and that the rain had stopped. I pulled Samuels' glasses from my pocked and slid them on after pressing a button near the ear. An instant heads up motion detector glared at me in my vision. It would be useful to not step into an ambush on the elevator. I pressed the two button and watched as the doors closed. Suddenly two red dots began to move on the motion detector, and I took aim at the door. As the elevator reached the floor I could hear their talking as they asked each other why the elevator was coming to their floor. I fired through the elevator door as it came to a stop and dropped to the floor to dodge any gunfire they attempted to return. One of the dots dropped to the floor, dead, another strafed to the left into a hotel room. I stood and cocked the shotgun knowing that I was safe so long as he remained in the room. I heard the door outside slam shut. The coward... I quickly and silently hopped over to the other side of the door and stood, waiting for him to leave the room and check the elevator for me. After a minute of waiting he carefully opened the door, and I carefully shot his head. His limp, decapitated body dropped to the ground and I ran for my room. Room 117 seemed further than ever before, and I kicked down the door to reveal the room empty though ransacked and covered with crime scene tape. I ducked under the yellow tape and walked over to the vent. I pulled it open and grabbed the radio fro it's hiding places. As I picked it up the device activated and played back a message that HQ had left for me.

"Warning, the hotel may be unusually full of terrorists, a cell battle group is moving through the town." I threw the device to the ground and ran from the room. "Also, an update on Niklin, his name may be Justin Scallion.(a future plot tie in or two..)"

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I stepped into the elevator and pressed the lobby button. As soon as The elevator began to lower itself the motion tracker began to track a dozen of targets. I looked into my pockets. Five shells, counting the ones in the gun and only a single grenade, nothing near to enough take out that many people. The elevator door opened and suddenly gunfire coated the elevator. They had been waiting for me... I pressed my back against the side of the elevator and watched as the wall in the back of the elevator was shredded with gunfire.

Suddenly I heard the familiar howl of a Pelican. I noticed a huge yellow object on my motion tracker, most likely the Pelican, and nine yellow dots behind it. Suddenly the skylights above the lobby shattered in as nine SWAT team members repelled into the lobby. As glass shards rained into the lobby the nine fell, almost as if they were angels settling into position. I leaned around the corner to see them drop from the bottoms of their black cables and take cover behind some columns. One of them dropped to the ground as he ran, shot in the back, but the Kevlar appeared to save his life, and he was dragged behind a column by another team member. They returned fire on the group and I noticed one of the terrorists drop to the ground, dead, and Samuels' car spring a fuel leak. The fuel and the man's blood pooled in the center of the floor and I fired both of my gunshots into the confusion. I heard a scream from the SWAT side of the room and saw a body fall to it's knees, blood spurting form an open wound on it's chest. One of it's friends yelled and dragged the SWAT member from the lobby out the door and began basic First Aid. I shot another terrorist and loaded the last of my shotgun shells into the shotgun, save for one. I saw my opportunity to exit the elevator as the SWAT team lost another member. Only five men were left fighting as another SWAT policeman dragged the wounded man to the other. As soon as he returned, though, he too was shot. I saw three of the terrorists drop to the ground suddenly, followed by another pair. I fired another shot into the horde, this time to see them return fire. Luckily, I was able to run behind one of the columns, all the SWAT members that were behind it dead. I noticed that the SWAT survivors fired at me. Clearly they had been sent in after hearing gunfire an explosions, not by the UNSC or they would not have fired upon me. I leaned carefully around the column, though, and shot at a terrorist. He fell to the ground dead, but he did so as the last SWAT police officer died. As his dying breath escaped his lips I saw my future end as his did should I decide to stay in the lobby. I grabbed my last grenade from my belt and threw it under Samuels' car. I quickly ran for the door and rolled to the ground as the building behind me exploded, fire and bodies flying from the exploding building. I was cut in the blast, a piece of shrapnel striking my left arm, and realized that I had been shot in the leg in the last battle. The pain was numbed by my fear perhaps, or maybe it had shot me when the building exploded.

"This is the Melo Precinct," I jumped, hearing a voice behind me before I realized it was only a radio from a dead SWAT team member. I grabbed the radio, "calling all available SWAT members, police engaged in shootout in front of gas station. Repeat, Melo's gas station. Officers pinned down, may be wounded. The suspect appears to have the body of a large child." Time seemed to freeze, Jada. "Calling all units..." I grabbed my shotgun and ran down the street as the fog began to clear. I saw the gas station, and a police car parked in front of it behind a car that I identified as Jada's. I ran towards the gas station as a helicopter approached in the distance.

"Come out with your hands up!" The Police helicopter circled the gas station firing suppressive gunfire into the Gas Station. The loudspeakers raspy voice bellowed a continual stream of requests for surrender as the gas station would light up with gunfire from the sniper, firing random shots into the air trying to hit the helicopter without exposing herself from her hiding place. I shuffled back into the woods behind the gas station, limping on my wounded leg. I watched from the woods as the helicopter circled around to the front of the building and slowed to speak again. I took this as my opportunity to charge the building and enter through the back door.

"You there!" the helicopters spotlight shone down in my eyes. Even in daytime it was bright, "Drop your weapon, put your hands on your head!" I was already in the building, chased by a line of gunfire. I stepped into a small room, two shelves with supplies on them and a tiny light. Suddenly the wall in front of me exploded with gunfire, the bounty hunter trying to keep me at bay.

I ducked back and yelled around the corner, "You don't have to do this!"

"What other choice do I have?" the bounty hunter yelled back.

"Surrender! You will get fair treatment!" I shouted. The helicopter passed by and I noticed the spotlight light the room after filling it with flying, tattered paper.

"There's no surrender, you'll just have me killed for what I know!"

"Even in that case, at least our child will live!" I shouted back hoping to draw up some self pity from the sniper.

"Child?" she asked. Suddenly gunfire ripped a jagged line through the gas station, and a desk that was struck by the gunfire near exploded. The sniper returned fire with one of the pistols she carried and then shot at the wall I was hiding behind. I ducked as quickly as I could, but I felt blood welling in my hand on my chest. I heard a sharp scream from outside, no doubt the police officer outside getting shot.

******************************************************************

The officer lies on the ground in a puddle of his own blood and the gasoline spilling from the nearby gas pump, severely damaged by the bounty hunter. He sits speaking some rhetoric though most of it was brought on solely by the blood loss. He managed to raise a weak arm to his mouth and stick a cigar into it. His weak lips held it, bobbing up and down with his surges of strength. He held up his lighter weakly and managed to strike a flame with the device, raising it to the end of his cigar. He held it for a second and watched as the old and tattered end of the cigar lit. He inhaled, knowing that it was his last cigar. He had saved it for that purpose, his wife had given it to him before she was killed by criminals and told him to quit with it. He was going to stop smoking on that day. He died a moment later.

******************************************************************

I heard a sudden loud noise in front of the gas station and a blinding light as the gas outside exploded. I was blown back in the blast. I found myself lying on my back on the ground, my arms and face singed and my shirt a tattered and charred remnant of it's former being. I rolled a piece of drywall off my weakly and stood up. I had never done anything so hard in my life ever before. I limped slowly towards the desk in the far corner of the gas station. A bullet from the helicopter struck me in the side as I walked towards the desk and shot my right arm and halfway into my chest. I stopped at the desk and grabbed the Spartans dead, charred and rotting body and threw it over my shoulder. I paced across the room weakly and stumbled to the door in the back of the room. The pain from my wounds finally caught me, and I was amazed at the awe inspiring pain. It hurt everywhere, my face, my legs, my arms, my chest; it was almost as if all I was was pain. Essentially, that was all I was...

The smoke created by the gasoline fire allowed a smokescreen for Mr. Warner to stumble away from his final mission's final battle. After his mission he retired to a body cast, and allowed Melo to sink into his long field history as the final chapter. Samuels, who was believed to be a terrorist by the police was freed by UNSC personnel disguised as Neo Covenant. The Spartan was properly destroyed with cremation, and was later launched into the sun, never to return. Jada Nichols was killed in the blast and was never identified by police. The terrorists Roguriez and Skip returned to see their hideout in ruins. Both served prison time for their crimes, though thanks to the modern law systems served almost 2 months, about the same time that their cellmates got for shoplifting.

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"Smoke and rubble descends in the small town of Melo yesterday, a series of brutal gunfights with police leaving over 40 dead in only one day. The mayor spoke yesterday about this tragedy and blames the Neo Covenant for the deaths of the 40 people, most of which who have not been named. We have this footage from News Pelican number 5. You can view the destruction to the Gas Station in Melo after the terrorists set blaze to the station," the newscaster said.

I twitched with excitement in my body cast, "I was there!" I muttered, my speech impaired by the jaw strap of the body cast.

"This is another set of footage from the Bucky's hotel where over 25 Terrorists were believed to beat the time of the explosion believed to be attributed to a leaky gas line,"

I twitched with excitement again. "I was there! I was there!"

"The government isn't speaking, at this time, as to why there was so much collateral damage created by the Neo Covenant but have not spoken to the press at this time. Ten officers lost their lives that day, and well over twenty five terrorists. The suspects in this crime,"

"Not me!"

"Have not been named at this time," I sighed, "This is Lucy Gale, back to you."

The news continued as I felt a sudden itch on my back and heard footsteps behind me. "Nurse? Could you scratch my back:?" I heard a pause, too long of one, "Nurse?"

"I'm coming." I recognized that voice.

"Nurse, you aren't scratching my back."

"Yeah, we'll talk about that..." I recognized that voice. I felt a sharp pain in my back, "After we talk about my damn car!"

I screamed frantically pressing the call button as Samuels threw a bill in my face. I guess revenge is sweet...